New Delhi: In a bid to set up a large drone manufacturing base with a focus on defence, drone technology company IG Drones is eyeing aggressive expansion in the sector with its upcoming manufacturing facility in Vadodara, a top executive told Mint.
“For the upcoming years, we are planning to go aggressive with the manufacturing, particularly for the defence sector. We are setting up a large-scale manufacturing plant in Gujarat in Vadodara at Vadodara airspace park. So, per year, we are roughly targeting 1,000 drones to be manufactured from our facility,” Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya, founder and chief executive officer, IG Drones told Mint.
Established in 2018, IG Drones currently can produce 100 drones per year. It also offers solutions in high-precision drone surveying, mapping, and inspection across industries. It has also introduced 5G-enabled drones and an indigenously developed drone simulator. Last week, it secured a procurement order from the defence ministry to provide drones for surveillance purposes.
The manufacturing facility is expected to be launched by June and will commence with a 30% capacity. The company plans to reach 100% capacity output of 1,000 drones within a year of the launch.
“This will be 90% for defence and the 10% will be for civilian applications. We work with a long-term vision. Today, there is a huge demand for a drone as hardware. But, ten years down the line, drones will be commoditized. And, then drones will not play a major role. The data (collected via drones) will play the major role,” Sanghapriya added.
In India, the drone industry received a major push with the liberalization of regulatory framework in the form of Drone Rules 2021. To promote the indigenous drone industry, the government had also notified the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and drone components in September 2021 with a total incentive of ₹120 crore spread over three financial years. The industry is further optimistic of more incentives to promote exports.
“We hope for more incentives, particularly in exports, which will help us compete at a better price on the global stage. There can also be more allocation and more relaxations under the PLI, particularly in an evolving sector like drone,” he added.
The geo-political climate across the world is also creating new requirements for drones and the demand is being felt by the domestic industry as well. In anticipation of the demand, IG Drones expects to allocate 50% of the defence drones capacity towards exports.
“Fifty per cent capacity will cater to the Indian market and 50% we are planning to export. There is a huge demand from Indian forces and because of the geopolitical scenario, there is also a huge demand from Middle East countries. So, we are seeing a huge opportunity in exporting drones,” Sanghapriya said.
The drone industry is witnessing rising importance in the defence sector. This was also visible with Bharat Drone Shakti 2023, a first-of-its-kind drone exhibition and display in September 2023 which was jointly organized by Indian Air Force and Drone Federation of India and featured over 75 drone start-ups from across the country. The government is also working towards making India a global drone hub by 2030.
“We have raised $1.7 million so far. We are a PAT (profit after tax) positive company. We are in the process of raising around $5 million. We are focusing more on technology because that is changing every month in drones. For example, we have developed 5G-enabled drones. Now, we have already started developing and started putting resources on the development of the 6G drones,” he added.
